BirdLife Malta said today that it had handed the police video footage showing hunters in illegal hunting activity and others threatening or actually violently attacking birdwatchers.

BirdLife President Joseph Mangion said the violent attack took place on Sunday in Dingli. A Maltese BirdLife volunteer, Paul Debono, accompanied by an Italian birdwatcher were monitoring illegal shooting when two men approached in a white pick-up truck and immediately attacked them and shouted at them to get back to their country.

Mr Debono said they were punched on the face, thrown to the ground and kicked in the stomach. Their camera, which was on, and recorded the whole incident, was taken from them. It was then returned to Rabat police station after the recorded data was deleted. However, through special software, BirdLife had managed to retrieve the data and identify the aggressors.

Mr Debono said there were no signs that his friend and himself were on private land.

Mr Mangion said that despite repeated violations of hunting rules, as well as such violent attacks, no one had been brought to justice yet.

He said that the BirdLife Spring Watch team over one week witnessed 474 illegalities, of which 88% involved illegal shooting. A total of 744 shots were recorded.

"Rather than naming and shaming the hunters who applied for a special licence to hunt in spring, the hunters' federation should name and shame the illegal hunters," Mr Mangion said.

He said that it was likely that during the six-day hunting season at the end of this month, there would be even more illegal hunting, coupled with the legal hunting, and the police would not be able to cope. The authorities, he said, had already shown in the past few weeks that they were unable to cope with such incidents.

"They wanted a spring hunting season and they got it. To do so, the government has risked facing fines. But the hunting lobby is never satisfied. Instead of investing in law enforcement, this government is spending time trying to appease an aggressive hunting lobby, Mr Mangion said.

Video supplied by BirdLife.